Single Vortex State Plot

In order to allow a magnetic field into a superconductor, the system adapts so that the superconductivity is destroyed along lines (called vortices), which form a regular array. The unit cell of such a lattice is shown, as solved in a fully self-consistent manner for the first time from the microscopic theory, by supercomputer. The magnetic field is peaked at the vortex centre (red on the lower plain) and maintained by circulating currents (arrows), while the superconducting order parameter plummets to zero (showing the destruction of superconductivity) with its phase circling through two pi around the zero (colors of the upper plain). The detailed information obtained from such microscopic solutions is giving us a deeper understanding of this quantum state - in particular of the physics behind the magnetic oscillations which have been experimentally observed in such systems.

Researchers: Paul Miller, University of Bristol, Malcolm Stocks, Oak Ridge National Laboratory